More and more people are using mobile communication devices, such as, for example, mobile phones, not only for voice but also for data communications. In the GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) specification, GPRS and EGPRS provide data services. The standards for GERAN are maintained by the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project). GERAN is a part of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). More specifically, GERAN is the radio part of GSM/EDGE together with the network that joins the base stations (the Ater and Abis interfaces) and the base station controllers (A interfaces, etc.). GERAN represents the core of a GSM network. It routes phone calls and packet data from and to the PSTN and Internet and to and from remote stations, including mobile stations. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standards have been adopted in GSM systems, for third-generation communication systems employing larger bandwidths and higher data rates. GERAN is also a part of combined UMTS/GSM networks.
The following issues are present in today's networks. First, more traffic channels are needed which is a capacity issue. Since there is a higher demand of data throughput on the downlink (DL) than on the uplink (UL), the DL and UL usages are not symmetrical. For example a mobile station (MS) doing FTP transfer is likely to be given 4D1U, which could mean that it takes four users resources for full rate, and eight users resources for half rate. As it stands at the moment, the network has to make a decision whether to provide service to 4 or 8 callers on voice or 1 data call. More resources will be necessary to enable DTM (dual transfer mode) where both data calls and voice calls are made at the same time.
Second, if a network serves a data call while many new users also want voice calls, the new users will not get service unless both UL and DL resources are available. Therefore some UL resource could be wasted. On the one hand, there are customers waiting to make calls and no service can be made; on the other hand, the UL is available but wasted due to lack of pairing DL.
Third, there is less time for mobile stations (also known as User Equipment or UE) working in multi-timeslot mode to scan neighbor cells and monitor them, which may cause call drops and performance issues.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a transmitter 118 and a receiver 150 in a wireless communication system. For the downlink, the transmitter 118 may be part of a base station, and receiver 150 may be part of a wireless device (remote station). For the uplink, the transmitter 118 may be part of a wireless device, and receiver 150 may be part of a base station. A base station is generally a fixed station that communicates with the wireless devices and may also be referred to as a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNode B), an access point, etc. A wireless device may be stationary or mobile and may also be referred to as a remote station, a mobile station, user equipment, mobile equipment, a terminal, a remote terminal, an access terminal, a station, etc. A wireless device may be a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a subscriber unit, a laptop computer, etc.
At transmitter 118, a transmit (TX) data processor 120 receives and processes (e.g., formats, encodes, and interleaves) data and provides coded data. A modulator 130 performs modulation on the coded data and provides a modulated signal. Modulator 130 may perform Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) for GSM, 8-ary phase shift keying (8-PSK) for Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), etc. GMSK is a continuous phase modulation protocol whereas 8-PSK is a digital modulation protocol. A transmitter unit (TMTR) 132 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and upconverts) the modulated signal and generates an RF modulated signal, which is transmitted via an antenna 134.
At receiver 150, an antenna 152 receives RF modulated signals from transmitter 110 and other transmitters. Antenna 152 provides a received RF signal to a receiver unit (RCVR) 154. Receiver unit 154 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and downconverts) the received RF signal, digitizes the conditioned signal, and provides samples. A demodulator 160 processes the samples as described below and provides demodulated data. A receive (RX) data processor 170 processes (e.g., deinterleaves and decodes) the demodulated data and provides decoded data. In general, the processing by demodulator 160 and RX data processor 170 is complementary to the processing by modulator 130 and TX data processor 120, respectively, at transmitter 110.
Controllers/processors 140 and 180 direct operation at transmitter 118 and receiver 150, respectively. Memories 142 and 182 store program codes in the form of computer software and data used by transmitter 118 and receiver 150, respectively.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a receiver unit 154 and demodulator 160 at receiver 150 in FIG. 1. Within receiver unit 154, a receive chain 440 processes the received RF signal and provides I and Q baseband signals, which are denoted as Ibb and Qbb. Receive chain 440 may perform low noise amplification, analog filtering, quadrature downconversion, etc. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 442 digitalizes the I and Q baseband signals at a sampling rate of fadc and provides I and Q samples, which are denoted as Iadc and Qadc. In general, the ADC sampling rate fadc may be related to the symbol rate fsym by any integer or non-integer factor.
Within demodulator 160, a pre-processor 420 performs pre-processing on the I and Q samples from ADC 442. For example, pre-processor 420 may remove direct current (DC) offset, remove frequency offset, etc. An input filter 422 filters the samples from pre-processor 420 based on a particular frequency response and provides input I and Q samples, which are denoted as Iin and Qin. Filter 422 may filter the I and Q samples to suppress images resulting from the sampling by ADC 442 as well as jammers. Filter 422 may also perform sample rate conversion, e.g., from 24× oversampling down to 2× oversampling. A data filter 424 filters the input I and Q samples from input filter 422 based on another frequency response and provides output I and Q samples, which are denoted as Iout and Qout. Filters 422 and 424 may be implemented with finite impulse response (FIR) filters, infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, or filters of other types. The frequency responses of filters 422 and 424 may be selected to achieve good performance. In one design, the frequency response of filter 422 is fixed, and the frequency response of filter 424 is configurable.
An adjacent channel interference (ACI) detector 430 receives the input I and Q samples from filter 422, detects for ACI in the received RF signal, and provides an ACI indicator to filter 424. The ACI indicator may indicates whether or not ACI is present and, if present, whether the ACI is due to the higher RF channel centered at +200 KHz and/or the lower RF channel centered at −200 KHz. The frequency response of filter 424 may be adjusted based on the ACI indicator, as described below, to achieve good performance.
An equalizer/detector 426 receives the output I and Q samples from filter 424 and performs equalization, matched filtering, detection, and/or other processing on these samples. For example, equalizer/detector 426 may implement a maximum likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE) that determines a sequence of symbols that is most likely to have been transmitted given a sequence of I and Q samples and a channel estimate.
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a widespread standard in cellular, wireless communication. GSM employs a combination of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) for the purpose of sharing the spectrum resource. GSM networks typically operate in a number of frequency bands. For example, for uplink communication, GSM-900 commonly uses a radio spectrum in the 890-915 MHz bands (Mobile Station to Base Transceiver Station). For downlink communication, GSM 900 uses 935-960 MHz bands (base station to mobile station). Furthermore, each frequency band is divided into 200 kHz carrier frequencies providing 124 RF channels spaced at 200 kHz. GSM-1900 uses the 1850-1910 MHz bands for the uplink and 1930-1990 MHz bands for the downlink. Like GSM 900, FDMA divides the GSM-1900 spectrum for both uplink and downlink into 200 kHz-wide carrier frequencies. Similarly, GSM-850 uses the 824-849 MHz bands for the uplink and 869-894 MHz bands for the downlink, while GSM-1800 uses the 1710-1785 MHz bands for the uplink and 1805-1880 MHz bands for the downlink.
Each channel in GSM is identified by a specific absolute radio frequency channel identified by an Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number or ARFCN. For example, ARFCN 1-124 are assigned to the channels of GSM 900, while ARFCN 512-810 are assigned to the channels of GSM 1900. Similarly, ARFCN 128-251 are assigned to the channels of GSM 850, while ARFCN 512-885 are assigned to the channels of GSM 1800. Also, each base station is assigned one or more carrier frequencies. Each carrier frequency is divided into eight time slots (which are labeled as time slots 0 through 7) using TDMA such that eight consecutive time slots form one TDMA frame with a duration of 4.615 ms. A physical channel occupies one time slot within a TDMA frame. Each active wireless device/user is assigned one or more time slot indices for the duration of a call. User-specific data for each wireless device is sent in the time slot(s) assigned to that wireless device and in TDMA frames used for the traffic channels.
Each time slot within a frame is used for transmitting a “burst” of data in GSM. Sometimes the terms time slot and burst may be used interchangeably. Each burst includes two tail fields, two data fields, a training sequence (or midamble) field, and a guard period (GP). The number of symbols in each field is shown inside the parentheses. A burst includes 148 symbols for the tail, data, and midamble fields. No symbols are sent in the guard period. TDMA frames of a particular carrier frequency are numbered and formed in groups of 26 or 51 TDMA frames called multi-frames.
FIG. 3 shows example frame and burst formats in GSM. The timeline for transmission is divided into multiframes. For traffic channels used to send user-specific data, each multiframe in this example includes 26 TDMA frames, which are labeled as TDMA frames 0 through 25. The traffic channels are sent in TDMA frames 0 through 11 and TDMA frames 13 through 24 of each multiframe. A control channel is sent in TDMA frame 12. No data is sent in idle TDMA frame 25, which is used by the wireless devices to make measurements for neighbor base stations.
FIG. 4 shows an example spectrum in a GSM system. In this example, five RF modulated signals are transmitted on five RF channels that are spaced apart by 200 KHz. The RF channel of interest is shown with a center frequency of 0 Hz. The two adjacent RF channels have center frequencies that are +200 KHz and −200 KHz from the center frequency of the desired RF channel. The next two nearest RF channels (which are referred to as blockers or non-adjacent RF channels) have center frequencies that are +400 KHz and −400 KHz from the center frequency of the desired RF channel. There may be other RF channels in the spectrum, which are not shown in FIG. 3 for simplicity. In GSM, an RF modulated signal is generated with a symbol rate of fsym=13000/40=270.8 kilo symbols/second (Ksps) and has a −3 dB bandwidth of up to ±135 KHz. The RF modulated signals on adjacent RF channels may thus overlap one another at the edges, as shown in FIG. 4.
One or more modulation schemes are used in GSM to communicate information such as voice, data, and/or control information. Examples of the modulation schemes may include GMSK (Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying), M-ary QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) or M-ary PSK (Phase Shift Keying), where M=2n, with n being the number of bits encoded within a symbol period for a specified modulation scheme. GMSK, is a constant envelope binary modulation scheme allowing raw transmission at a maximum rate of 270.83 kilobits per second (Kbps).
GSM is efficient for standard voice services. However, high-fidelity audio and data services desire higher data throughput rates due to increased demand on capacity to transfer both voice and data services To increase capacity, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standards have been adopted in GSM systems.
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a non-voice service. It allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. It supplements Circuit Switched Data (CSD) and Short Message Service (SMS). GPRS employs the same modulation schemes as GSM. GPRS allows for an entire frame (all eight time slots) to be used by a single mobile station at the same time. Thus, higher data throughput rates are achievable.
The EDGE standard uses both the GMSK modulation and 8-PSK modulation. Also, the modulation type can be changed from burst to burst. 8-PSK modulation in EDGE is a linear, 8-level phase modulation with 3π/8 rotation, while GMSK is a non-linear, Gaussian-pulse-shaped frequency modulation. However, the specific GMSK modulation used in GSM can be approximated with a linear modulation (i.e., 2-level phase modulation with a π/2 rotation). The symbol pulse of the approximated GMSK and the symbol pulse of 8-PSK are identical.
In GSM/EDGE, frequency bursts (FB) are sent regularly by the Base Station (BS) to allow Mobile Stations (MS) to synchronize their Local Oscillator (LO) to the Base Station LO, using frequency offset estimation and correction. These bursts comprise a single tone, which corresponds to an all “0” payload and training sequence. The all zero payload of the frequency burst is a constant frequency signal, or a single tone burst. When in power-on or camp-on mode or when first accessing the network, the remote station hunts continuously for a frequency burst from a list of carriers. Upon detecting a frequency burst, the MS will estimate the frequency offset relative to its nominal frequency, which is 67.7 KHz from the carrier. The MS LO will be corrected using this estimated frequency offset. In power-on mode, the frequency offset can be as much as +/−19 KHz. The MS will periodically wake up to monitor the frequency burst to maintain its synchronization in standby mode. In the standby mode, the frequency offset is within ±2 KHz.
Modern mobile cellular telephones are able to provide conventional voice calls and data calls. The demand for both types of calls continues to increase, placing increasing demands on network capacity. Network operators address this demand by increasing their capacity. This is achieved for example by dividing or adding cells and hence adding more base stations, which increases hardware costs. It is desirable to increase network capacity without unduly increasing hardware costs, in particular to cope with unusually large peak demand during major events such as an international football match or a major festival, in which many users or subscribers who are located within a small area wish to access the network at one time. When a first remote station is allocated a channel for communication (a channel comprising a channel frequency and a time slot), a second remote station can only use the allocated channel after the first remote station has finished using the channel. Maximum cell capacity is reached when all the allocated channel frequencies are used in the cell and all available time slots are either in use or allocated. This means that any additional remote station user will not be able to get service. In reality, another capacity limit exists due to co-channel interferences (CCI) and adjacent channel interferences (ACI) introduced by high frequency re-use pattern and high capacity loading (such as 80% of timeslots and channel frequencies).
Network operators have addressed this problem in a number of ways, all of which require added resources and added cost. For example, one approach is to divide cells into sectors by using sectored, or directional, antenna arrays. Each sector can provide communications for a subset of remote stations within the cell and the interference between remote stations in different sectors is less than if the cell were not divided into sectors and all the remote stations were in the same cell. Another approach is to divide cells into smaller cells, each new smaller cell having a base station. Both these approaches are expensive to implement due to added network equipment. In addition, adding cells or dividing cells into several smaller cells can result in remote stations within one cell experiencing more CCI and ACI interference from neighboring cells because the distance between cells is reduced.